This is the structure of a JMiller workout that I did 12 days out from NE Champs. I like this set because, like the one I did the other day, it intersperses sprinting (10 x 25 AFAP) throughout. I felt a little better in the water today. But I suspect it will take a few more days to recover from that horrible night of sleep.

My left shoulder/lat/trap feels rather twingey too. It could be from tossing and turning at night. As a precaution, I'm eliminating pulling with paddles (which I find I kinda like) and using fins 100% for a few days.

I'm swimming with Speedo and Wolfy tomorrow. We haven't decided on the workout yet. I was thinking it might be time for 6 x 50 AFAP @ 3:00 though. JimRude prefers them on the 2:00 for more suffering and lactate buffering. Whatdayathink guys?

On Toenails:

Awhile ago, Mr. Fort went on a trail run and stubbed his toe. Afterward, he started to lose his toenail. (I'm read this is common in running and that some runners keep "toenail necklaces. ) He had a 20 mile run scheduled for last weekend and it was very painful. He was worried this might cause him to miss his marathon in 2 weeks in York. But me, the good wife, told him to go see a podiatrist and have it removed. It worked and he feels much better. He would have been pretty bummed to miss his marathon after the hard work and speed sessions he put in.

"My current gym has a steam room and I often sit in it for a few minutes after a workout. Although I assumed there was some benefit to this ritual I can’t say that I really knew what the exact benefits where of sitting in a hot steamy room with fellow gym rats. So, I decided to investigate and this is what I found…

A steam room offersa holistic health treatment,designed forextracting impurities from the body using heat. A steam room is different than a sauna, in that its effect is brought about by the use of wet heat as opposed to dry.

After a hard workout, a session in the steam roomis supposed to aid in keepingthe body relaxed and flexible, so that it will nottighten up as a result of hard exercise. The steam roomshould also help the body eliminate toxins, forcing them out through sweating. Your skin will be cleaner, softer, and healthier according to my research.

Some of the other benefits include…

Help for Lung related issues

For hundreds of years, the inhalation of steam has been prescribed to treat various disorders of the lungs. A study conducted at the Common Cold Unit at Harvard Hospital reported that “Nasal hyperthermia can improve the course of a common cold and also give immediate relief of symptoms.”In addition,steam has been shown to have positive effects on the symptoms of sinusitis, bronchitis and allergy related symptoms."

Chlorella:

I saw this supplement at Whole Foods the other day. I was wondering about it. I got this response from a sci geek friend on FB:

"Chlorella has been found to have anti-tumor properties when fed to mice.[4][5][6] Another study found enhanced vascular function in hypertensive rats given oral doses of chlorella.[7]

Chlorella is a complete protein. It is also packed with calories, fat, and vitamins.[3] At its onset, Chlorella was suggested as a "dirt-cheap" protein supplement to the human diet. However, later studies proved otherwise. Chlorella actually loses most of its nutritional value when altered or processed in any way. No longer considered an effective protein, pro-Chlorella supporters focused on other supposed health benefits of the algae, such as claims of weight control, cancer prevention, and immune system support.[3]

Under certain growing conditions, Chlorella yields oils high in polyunsaturated fats—Chlorella minutissima has yielded EPA at 39.9% of total lipids.[8]

Several studies suggest that Chlorella supplementation has a positive effect on the reduction of dioxin levels in breast milk and it may also have beneficial effects on nursing infants by increasing the IgA levels in breast milk. [9]"

#2 swim 150 free at hard pace, 10 sec. rest, 50 free all out, 50 easy choice on 5:00(I missed the part about resting 10 sec after the 150. So I checked the clock as I was coming into the turn and kept going. was about 2:00 at 150 then finished at 2:35 for 200)

#3 swim 100 free at hard pace, rest 10 sec., 100 back at hard pace, 10 sec. rest, 50 easy choice on a total interval of 5:00(was between 1:13 and 1:14 on free, between 1:18 and 1:19 on back)

So I swam Friday night solo because I knew I wouldn't get in Saturday and knew it was possible that I wouldn't get in on Sunday. I wanted to get up early and go on Sunday but I felt sick as heck Saturday night and decided I needed the sleep - rest of the day was packed so there was no chance of the pool happening.

Took a half day yesterday to get stuff done, rest and try to tinker with food to figure out just why my poor stomach hates me ... no luck, got sicker as the day went on and spent the workout time in bed. (fortunately with clean sheets and about 10 loads of laundry done in a now clean room)

Nonetheless - allergies are flairing up like crazy, stomach is killing me (mostly just painful) ... not what I need to be in 2.5 weeks out.

Oh well, today is a new day ... swimming solo after work (in theory) .... Just needed to

I think my illness last week has put me a week ahead on taper. Not good.

500 Free every 3rd lap back
3x200@4:00 Back at pace went 3:16, 3:15, 3:14
8x25@1:00 Back kick
3x100@2:00 Back at pace went 1:34, 1:35, 1:34
8x25@1:00 Back kick
3x50@1:30 Back SPRINT went :44, :44, :43
10x50 from dive 15 meter breakouts starts were ok the speed was missing in the breakout
350 Free EASY

I purchased a pair of AquaSphere Female Goggles/mask. I love these things. I have ABSOLUTELY NO GOGGLE MARKS on my face after swimming! When I wear my regular goggles I have deep rings around my eyes most of the day. They seal totally leak-free and so far have not fogged at all. I would love to have a pair of tinted ones to race ow in. As far as I have researched they do not make the tinted model for females.
I have tried a couple other masky- type goggles and been unable to flip or push off the wall hard without rolling the goggles.

It was a perfectly blue sky summer-like day in Indy today. My eldest daughter and I went shopping. We drove around all day in her Dad's sporty black convertible! FUN, Fun, fun! Now we are in the midst of a heavy torrential downpour and thunderboomers! How quickly things can change!

One more week until the tapering begins. Weights and running are still on the menu...but I've begun cutting out some junk..e.g. 1 serving of cake or cookies instead of 3... down to 170.

Warm Up
Twice Through; 1st FR 2nd BR
200 Kick (FR with Fins)
200 Pull (BR with paddles, fins and Fly kick)
200 Swim
Main
5 times through
100 BR 2:00
100 FR 2:00I had wanted to neg split the BR but there was nobody around to watch...I also kept forgetting to check the clock at the 50. DOH!
4 x 50 EZ 1:00
SprintSet
12 x 25 1:00 IMO I wanted to go from blocks but sure enough, as I get to this part..I had to share the lane...so I did from push.4 x 50 EZ 1:00

"Dunno what you call this" Set5 x 100 2:00 Denoted fast 25's 1st, 4th, 1st, 4th, 1st and 4th. I was not quite sprint capable here.
Kick Set
8 x 50 1:20-1:30 First 5 I made the 1:20 on about 1:05. I pushed out the last 3 to 1:30 to keep the tempo up.
Cool Down
4 x 50 EZ

Plugged in the P90X DVD to do an hour of stretching and yoga. Followed this with 10-15 minutes of RC work.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Commentary:

Ack! My children ruined my sleep last night. The 9 year old woke up with a nightmare. (Friend had told her a scary story of old man hiding in the shack behind the school. ) Then my 15 missed the bus, and came to wake me at 6:15 to drive her to school. Got home and had a hard time falling back to sleep as I had to get up at 7:45 with my youngest. In sum, super cruddy broken night sleep. Despite caffeine, I felt like a zombie. Instead of hitting the pool, I decided to rest at home and do the stretching and yoga. I also decided I'm done with all other cross training -- core, weights, hot yoga, etc. The only thing I'll do is stretching and light yoga to supplement the swimming.

This may be the detox that Chaos was doing. When I discussed detoxes with my chiro a couple weeks back, he mentioned there are level 1 and level 2 cleanses. Level 2 is more of a medical grade cleanse that really helps the organs.

FYI, I did see recently in a bicycling mag that coconut water and coconut butter or oil were must haves for smoothies.

I went to AGUA’s early morning practice this morning. The weekend had been really hot and humid here, and our apartment building has not switched over to air conditioning yet, so I was super glad to crawl out of bed this morning and head to the pool. Here’s what we did:

I’ve been looking at the timeline for Atlanta and thinking about what suits I want to wear for each race. I have to decide which events are far enough apart to warrant costume changes in between—I don’t like sitting around in my tech suit if there’s tons and tons of time between events. How do other people handle this? In spite of my general love of swimsuits, figuring out how many costume changes I should plan for and how many and which suits to bring (because putting back on the same wet tight tech suit seems pretty impossible) is not one of my favorite big-meet-associated tasks.

I am pretty pleased with the timing of my events: On Friday, my races start at 8am (400 IM, I always like swimming the first event on my first day at a meet, rather than waiting around), 12:15pm (50 BR), and 1:20 (200 BK). It looks like I’ll have a nice lunch break between the IM and before the 50 BR that day. On Saturday I get to sleep in, then swim the last 3 events back-to-back-to-back, at 12:50, 2:20, and 3:55. I might get to swim some relays in there as well. I think it will be a fun few days!

Yesterday afternoon I did the following rowing workout with Mr. Addict. It is the second time we’ve attempted to do 6 x (2 minutes hard, 2 minutes rest), and both times I’ve bailed before I finished the set. The first time I tried to do 2 sets of 3 descending 2s, and I went 1:57 on the 3rd one, which is a very good time for me, but then was just too drained and wheezy to carry on. Yesterday my goal was just to go sub-2:10 on the odds and <2:05 on the evens, which I thought would be doable. I think I just got too overheated—the air conditioning at the Y has not been turned on yet, either. I ended up giving myself a get-out-time on the 4th rep, made it, and just did the last 2 easy. Mr. Addict was suffering too, but he powered through the whole thing.

15 x 100 LCM kick FAST on 3:00
Best ave, Dove them all
on most I did 6 SDKs off the start
I started out around 1:18
which kind of surprised me
did mostly 1:17's then drifted up to 18's,
did a couple 19's
then went 1:14.3 on #15
that was a very challenging set
did a set like this a few years ago with UT women, think my best was 1:20, I ave around 1:23 or 4
noticed I my kicks were smaller & I went faster

moved back to diving well

they were doing 150s
I did 100's & swam down
then did an easy speed 50 SDK
went 28

swim 8 x 100 on 2:00: #1-2 free, hold stroke length (15-16 spl and 1:19±)#3 free, 1st and last 25 FAST, work on fast breakout on the 1st length and a fast finish on the last one (around 1:20)#4-5 back, hold stroke length (17 spl and 1:28, 1:25)#6 back, 1st and last 25 FAST, work on fast breakout on the 1st length and a fast finish on the last one around 1:25#7-8 IM smooth, make the interval (around 1:30 on both)100 easy

kick 8 x 50 on 1:10 w/zoomers:#1 & 5 first and last 12.5 fast,#3&7 middle 25 fast,evens smooth, make interval(was doing these around 40. seemed like too much rest)100 easy

swim 12 x 25 on 45: odds long kickout and fast breakout; evens sprint in from the flags, mix these up free and back(not sure about times on these. because of the glare I couldn't see the clock very well)

Oh well not a particularly good day, still some nausea, lack of energy and all round not great but still managed a workout.

10x100@1:45 Free every 3rd IM
5x100@1:30 Free kick w/fins
10x100@:10R Free at pace subtract 1:30 from the time which came out to 13:58 only 1 minute off yuck
10x50 from Dive 15 meter breakouts the first 3 and last 2 were not to bad everything in the middle just stunck couldn't get my streamline on the start
300 kick w/fins
200 free Easy

The ribs are finally starting to come around. They still hurt with deep breathing or pressure but swimming is working out okay this week.
I'm going to train for the July 10K swim. When the date arrives I will re-assess and decide if I should "go for it" or drop back to the 5K swim.

I'm off school tomorrow; Flex Day!!!
I took a personal day on Friday to give an all day SPARK Training for Physical Education Teachers at Huntington College.
I'm planning to do a 5K swim workout tomorrow, a 5-7K run, and a kettle belle workout.
I've missed blogging! I started a couple a few different times but they sounded winey so I deleted.
Hopefully I will be back to regular daily banter!

This is a modified Ande workout that I did 3 weeks before NE Champs. (Note: This is what Ande "did" as opposed to what was "assigned.") I like this workout b/c it intersperses speed throughout instead of just sticking a speed set on the end.

I didn't feel the greatest in the water today, though times seemed OK. I was out very late last night for dinner & drinks with a couple friends from law school in town from Chicago. Great to see them, but my late night caused me to miss my am team practice. Probably good to log some sleep anyway. I feel quite tired tonight, which is odd b/c I was energetic all week despite the hard workouts.

It's officially taper time. I know Ande thinks we all "crave" this, but not me. I'm not as broken down as usual since I rested some for Zones. Probably a very good thing in retrospect so that my hyped up, fast twitch sprinter body can get some real rest. I figure aerobic work is definitely fixed at this point, so I'll just be doing speed work and recovery swimming. May do one suffering set this week, but that's it!

Tomorrow, I'm hitting the gym for RC+core+stretching and then I'll do a short swim workout.